Cuts forcing hobby schools to figure out how to finish current school year

The Estonian government cut funding for children's extracurricular education by 10 percent this year, forcing local governments to work out how to keep extracurricular clubs and classes running through spring.
Last year, local governments received €10.25 million in funding for children's extracurricular education. This year, however, state budget cuts have slashed €1 million, or one-tenth from this funding, leaving it up to local governments to ensure that clubs and classes that started last fall can at least continue through the end of the current school year.
Anija Municipality has decided that all hobby groups that started last fall will continue, but reduce activities.
"These are pretty harsh solutions," Anija Deputy Municipal Mayor Tiina Silem admitted. "Some classes that previously took place three to four times a week can only continue once a week now. In other cases, the number of sessions was reduced, meaning that while activities would typically continue into the summer, classes will now end in mid-May."
While all extracurriculars will continue operating for now, come this fall, kids will likely have fewer activities to choose from.
To date, all hobby groups have been free of charge, but one possible way to maintain them at current volumes would be to introduce fees.
Silem hopes it won't come to that.
"We're trying to manage without [fees], because even small participation fees, such as €3 per class, could be a significant expense for families in Anija Municipality," she acknowledged. "And while some kids are currently able to take part in multiple different classes and clubs, introducing fees would likely force [the kids] to drop some of them."
In Järva Municipality, extracurricular clubs and classes have likewise been free, and will remain so despite the reduction in funding. However, while the municipality would previously foot the bill for music school or an extracurricular club even in another local government, now parents will be asked to pay for 30 percent of these fees themselves.
"For our municipality, this cut means we have around €30,000 less for extracurricular activities," explained Järva Deputy Municipal Mayor Siim Umerov. "Right now, the total amount our municipality has available for extracurricular activities is €132,000."
This year, Jõelähtme Municipality received €10,000 less in extracurricular education funding than last year, but also three fewer applicants for funding.
"They've reduced the volume of extracurricular activities to some extent — either by slightly cutting down on the number of sessions or, in some cases, slightly increasing co-fees," said Jõelähtme Municipal Mayor Andrus Umboja. "Each [provider] figured out a way to maintain the essence of their activity while making it possible to continue with slightly lower costs."
According to Umboja, no clubs in their municipality will have to close this year due to the cuts. Even so, he can't rule out that the municipality may have to start contributing more funding itself to ensure that kids will continue to have a variety of extracurricular activities to choose from.
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Editor: Merili Nael, Aili Vahtla